Anti-immigration protesters in Michigan decry plans to house undocumented minors

Protesters from all over Michigan gathered in the city of Vassar on Monday in order to voice their opposition to a government proposal to house undocumented minors from Central America in the area.

The protest took place
near Vassar City Hall and included more than 50 people – some of
which were brandishing AR-15 rifles and handguns. Other
participants sported signs that featured slogans such as, “Don’t
Tread on Me,” and, “Stop Taxpayer Funded Invasion.”

According to MLive.com, the strong response came after it
was revealed that a local social service organization, Wolverine
Human Services, is working on teaming up with the anti-poverty
group Heartland Alliance in Chicago to offer temporary shelter
for 12- to 17-year-old male immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala,
and El Salvador.

The shelters would be used to house minors who’ve entered the
United States illegally for up to four weeks. During this time,
the children would be treated with immunizations and offered
education, and after their stay they would be delivered to
relatives and continue moving through the immigration process,
which would likely result in deportation.

As RT has reported in the past, the United States has
experienced a surge in undocumented minors flooding into the
country through the Mexican border. Almost 60,000 children have
crossed the border illegally since October, leaving states and
the federal government scrambling for ways to deal with the situation. The
program normally responsibility for caring for undocumented
minors, operated by the Department of Health and Human Services,
is set up to handle a fraction of that number.

Although the government said any immigrants placed in Vassar
would not be affiliated with criminals or be criminals
themselves, Tamyra Murray of the Michiganders for Immigration
Control and Enforcement, who helped organize the protest, remains
unconvinced. She claims that not only are some of the minors gang
members and are working as drug runners for cartels, but also
that others are coughing up blood and battling tuberculosis.

“We’re not against kids,” Murray said to MLive. “We
have sympathy for the kids being used and exploited by the
feds.”

Some protesters, like Millington resident Scott Freeman, carried
a flag calling for a second American revolution. Rochester
resident Jeff McQueen, meanwhile, said President Obama is
downplaying the issue.

Criticism over the Vassar facility was also voiced by US Rep.
Candice Miller (R-Mich.), who wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human
Services on Friday calling the proposal “deeply
troubling.” She also suggested the government is looking at
“several cities” in Michigan for housing.

In a separate letter on July 3, Miller blamed the
border situation on the Obama administration’s policies, calling
for the minors to be removed from the US as soon as possible.

“It is imperative that the people being apprehended at the
border not be released from custody because if they are, it is
very unlikely they will ever return for immigration hearings on
their status, and they will disappear into society,” she
wrote. “In order to send the message to Central America and
Mexico that our border has meaning, we must send these people
back to the nations they came from, and we must do it
immediately. If this requires changes to federal law, then we
must immediately get about the work of changing the law.”

While people in Michigan protested on Monday, a similar
demonstration was held Tuesday in Oracle, Arizona. According to
the Associated Press, anti-immigration advocates
faced off against pro-immigration supporters after a local
sheriff informed them a bus filled with Central American children
was entering the area.